Best Buy throws in HTC Flyer's $80 stylus for free

The HTC Flyer starts at $500 (Wi-Fi-only version), but the device is much more useful with the optional $80 pressure-sensitive stylus. Best Buy, which originally sold the Scribe digital pen as an additional accessory, is now including it with the tablet for free.

HTC has been marketing the stylus as one of the key differentiating features of its tablet, but the extra price tag was throwing people off. This pretty much seals the deal for anyone who believes that tablets should come with styluses as an extra input option. For those who like to write or draw by hand, this deal is for you.

There was a limited-time period where you could buy the pen included, but now Best Buy has made the deal forever. HTC probably should have bundled it from the start, but hey, better late than never.

HTC officially unveiled the 7-inch device at Mobile World Congress in February 2011. The HTC Flyer touts a 1.5GHz single-core Qualcomm CPU, 1GB of RAM, an aluminum unibody construction, and a 1024 x 600 resolution. Other features include a 5MP camera on the back, 1.3MP front-facing camera for video conferencing, HSPA+ support, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

The device is powered by Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread) rather than Android 3.0/3.1 (codenamed Honeycomb). This is unfortunate because the latter is specifically designed for tablets.

HTC was more concerned with getting its tablet on the market as soon as possible than having it run Google's latest and greatest. That being said, the Taiwanese company does plan to offer an upgrade to Honeycomb at some point, but it has yet to announce a date.